Crimson Dawn (21 page)

As I cut down two more Newborns, Irulan reluctantly turned to go. I moved into the darkness and rushed the crowd of oncoming newborns. They came at me in two's and three's, but I hacked and slashed my way through anything that stepped in my way. I fought until my shoulders burned from swinging my sword, but I held firm until they finally wised up and rushed me all at once.

As fast and as strong as I am, even I couldn't fight against so many at once. It took five Newborns to capture and hold me. When they finally had me around the neck, arms, and legs, the same vamp that had spoken earlier stood in front of me with a satisfied smirk on his face,. "This could have been avoided, Ms. Trumaine. Now I'm going to have to incapacitate you until his arrival."

The smug little fucker threw a handful of some type powder directly into my face. "Why does everyone keep screwing with my eyes?" I yelped while the group that had latched onto me cried out with surprise and dismay.

The appointed leader snapped quickly, "Quit whining, you're serving Tristan's will, and you know there are rewards in the end for anything you have to endure I'm going to let him know everything went according to plan. Remember, Tristan doesn't want her hurt." My head began to spin, and a wave of nausea rippled through my stomach. My eyes began watering, and everything went black, no night vision, no UV, I tried lowering my films, but they felt welded to my eyelids. I couldn't use my eyes for the time being.

Remember what they say about the mouse while the cat was away? As soon as the lead dipstick was gone, they threw me to the ground and gave me a firm kick in the stomach. A feminine voice laced with contempt rang out in the darkness. "Tristan could have his choice of any one of us. I don't see what's so special about her.”

"He wants and deserves the best. She took down twenty-one of us before we were able to stop her. Can you do that?" Another faceless voice replied. I turned my face towards them, intent on antagonizing them as much as possible. I planned to use their small amount of control against them to try to push them to turn on each other.

"I can take a complement as well as the next girl, but are you sure you're cock blocking for Tristan's sake and not your own? You sound like maybe you think no woman is good enough for Tristan if you know what I mean.”

I balled up in pain after receiving another kick to the midsection. The faceless voice didn't take too kindly to my gay inference I guess. "Did I hit a little too close to home, buddy? That why you're lashing out? I bet, underneath all that black, there's a rainbow waiting to happen.”

The female shrieked just before I heard the sounds of a struggle. One seed of doubt was all it took, and they were on each other kicking and screaming, clawing and snapping, all trying to be the first to draw blood. I heard footsteps on the rooftop, and a voice floated down, "It's just Sheila and Darren again. No, she's fine. She can’t see anything anyway.

I waited until the footsteps moved again then I quietly drew a handful of thin throwing spikes from my leg holster and I let them fly through the darkness, using the sounds from their fighting as my guide. I flung them as fast as I could, and followed every noise until I heard the thump of two bodies hit the floor. The ones that managed to elude me realized I was tracking them by ear and stopped moving. I used the distraction to look for the kids. They were alone with no idea of how to remain unnoticed. I heard the small whimpers of fear they were making and knew if I heard it so did the Newborns.

They could come after the kids or me but they knew the moment they made a sound I was going to send a spike flying in their direction, and I was a lot faster than they were.

For the moment, we were at a standstill, but it wouldn't last for long. The guards above were sure to hear the absence of fighting and would be here in seconds to check out what was going on.

I somehow made it back to the children, through the darkness. The nine kids had the sense to stay huddled together under the covering we had placed over them, but the moment I pulled it back, a little girl saw my bloodied face and fangs, and began screaming her head off. I already had to worry about Deadborns tracking the kids by both sight and scent. I didn't need to add anything else to the list. I pleaded, shushed, and begged her to be quiet but nothing I did or said worked.

The heavy thumps of Deadborns landing began resonating through the air. "I'm done with this shit," said a young male. "She's killed two more of us. Are we just going to stand around while she picks us off and let her get away with it? Instead of fighting with each other let’s teach this bitch a lesson."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Shit. I felt the aura of another vamp land somewhere out there in the darkness. By my count that made eight. Eight baby-vamps hyped-up by blood lust and the promise of an easy kill - not exactly what I was going for. I was beginning to hate sending Irulan after Priest and the runners, but it was too late.

Tristan knew I wouldn't be able to leave the kids to face their possible deaths at the hands of his flunkies. Dropping them through that skylight and taking off with the others was his ticket to freedom, for the moment. Hopefully, it was a short-lived triumph on his part, especially if Irulan actually caught up with him.

The girl was still crying no matter what I said. The only thing she saw was a monster. As far as she was concerned, I was no different from the one that took her from her mommy and daddy. As much as I hated doing it, I reached inside the terrified girl's mind and simply shut it off.

As her body relaxed, I handed her off to one of the older boys. I quickly weighed my options - stay here, cornered, and try to protect the kids, leaving us open to a potential ambush from all eight vamps, or go on the offensive and try to take them out before they got a pinpoint on our hiding place.

As the boy cradled the sleeping toddler, I slipped inside the boy's mind to let him know what I was about to do. To my surprise, he didn't panic. He simply nodded his head and got a firmer grip on his charge. With that taken care of, I crept out of our hiding place and began my own hunt.

The darkness was both a curse and an advantage. My night vision was coming back, but because of whatever Tristan's flunky threw into my eyes, my UV wasn't responding at all. On the bright side, because it took five of his coven to hold me down, he also got most of his own people. That left three in top form. Those were my first priority.

I drew in a quick stream of air trying to pinpoint a location for each vamp, but the death-stench that saturated every inch of the abandoned factory overloaded my senses. OK, scenting them was definitely out. Another mark in my favor since it reduced my worry that they might still track.

My worries that they'd find the kids by scent ratcheted down a couple of notches. I'd covered them in more clothes from the vamps that I had already killed, praying that that would be enough to throw the rest of them off until I took care of them. If my nose were any indication as to what the others could smell, the kids would be OK on that front.

I felt a slight change in the air to my right. Something was moving at a breakneck speed trying to take position behind me. Not happening, captain. I reached out just as fast, felt the vamp's aura in the darkness, and leapt.

I caught the Deadborn by the back of his head, twisted my body through the air, and used his momentum against him to slam his head through the concrete floor beneath us. Even with the force I had behind the move, I knew he wasn't dead. I crouched over his still form and reached inside myself to touch the feral part of my nature.

My features melted easily into a face that had seen the dark of night more in the past two days, than it had in the past five years. When I shifted, my night vision had returned to normal. I could finally see. With my head cocked to one side, I waited for signs of life from the still vamp. A deep rattle from his chest rewarded my short wait. I rolled him over so he could see the instrument of his death. Apparently Tristan had never shown his flunkies his feral nature, because I was sure the vamp would have peed himself if he could.

The look of terror on his face fueled my rage. I let go of what little control I was desperately holding onto and slammed my fist into his chest cavity. I twisted and turned until I could feel his spine with my fingertips. I pulled my hands free from the corpse and my ears picked up movement on the catwalk above me.

I squinted and looked up at a metal catwalk hanging overhead, and to my surprise, I could see the cool blue outline of three vamps all waiting for me to make the slightest move. My UV had kicked in also, seemed like what they used had no effect on my shifted eyes.

I slowly backed away from the lifeless shell of the vamp and lifted myself to my full height hissing as I straightened up. A direct challenge was the perfect bait to a newborn running mostly on instinct. One of the vamps couldn't resist and dove off the catwalk right into my waiting arms despite his comrade’s protest.

He came at me at a terrifying speed and got a good hit in causing my head to snap back and blood to pour from my nose. "You're gonna pay for that," I spat out along with a tooth. The baby Deadborn twisted my arm into a pretzel as he head-butted me onto my ass.

"Unlikely. My sire was right about you, Trumaine. You’re weak. You deny your true nature, and you will suffer for it.”

I flipped over backwards into a crouching position and eyed the vamp as he began circling me. He was unafraid of my feral appearance, unlike the other one. He was about five foot six and had blonde curly hair, not a bad body, but he looked all of fifteen or sixteen years old. Tristan was turning babies. "You look young. How old are you, boy?"

He sneered and took a swipe at one of my arms. “None of your business. The only thing you need to know about me is that I'm going to be the instrument of your destruction.”

Blah, blah, blah. "You watch too many horror movies. A bit overdramatic, aren't we?” I cast a quick look upward to his buddies. So far, they were staying in place, which was exactly what I didn't want. I needed the fight to come to the lower level. I didn't want to be that far away from the children.

The vamp continued to circle taking pot shots as he went. I ate his crow letting every single blow land and draw blood. The things I did for this job. "You don't have to live like this, cowering in the dark, living in squalor. Vampires are capable of living normal lives. You should know that. I don't know what Tristan told you, but he's only looking out for himself."

The vamp kicked me in the ribs hard enough to fling me ten feet across the filthy concrete floor. "My sire chose us out of all the people in the world. He chose us to be the future of our race.”

'Future of our race?!' He had these kids converted to apostles with his bullshit. I pulled myself to my knees and leaned forward onto my hands. "He chose you because you were convenient, kid, that's it. The only purpose Tristan has for you is in your becoming his late night snack. When a Pureblood really gives a damn about his turn, he takes the time and effort to make him a Lifeborn. Not a weak excuse for a Vampire like you."

That one earned me another trip across the floor. Pain exploded in my side from the force of the blow. I was going to be seriously hurt if those two didn't join in soon. The Deadborn closed the distance between us in one quick leap and hoisted me off the ground by my neck. "I'm the weak one, but you're the one with the busted ribs. I honestly don't see what he ever saw in you. Valeria this, Valeria that, I don't get it. When he finds everything he needs to bring the Founders back, I will sit on his right side, not a pathetic bitch like you."

The Founders, huh? Yeah, OK. I heard the soft thud of the other vamps landing. Looked as if they had decided I wasn't a threat.

I could end this now. "Tristan is insane, child. The only thing he's going to lead you to is your second death. This is your last chance. Come in with me, I can get the CMS to go easy on you. You're young. Your life could be so much more than the delusions he's filled your head with."

One of the new vamps clasped a hand on the boy's shoulder and smiled, "Good job, David! Don’t listen to her. Finish this, and claim your reward when the Founders rise again."

"I thought Tristan wanted me alive," I said, stalling.

He squeezed harder, but the look in his eyes wasn't the look of a killer. He was just a confused kid mixed up in the wrong crowd. His friends egged him on to finish me, but he didn't put any lethal strength behind his grip.

I reached up, gripped his arm with both of my hands, and looked into his eyes slipping inside his conscious, "
This isn't you, David, you're not like them. Let me show you another way
.” I offered him redemption instead of the death I was duty bound to deliver.